Samuel carson



.pheric air or other gas, and maintaining UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL CARSON, OF NElV YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN RAILWAY MANFG.COM- PANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

METHOD OF CHARGING THE RECEIVER OF A LOGOMOTIVE WITH COMPRESSED AIR FROMFIXED STATIONS.

Specification of Letters Patent No.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL CARSON, a subject of the Queen of GreatBritain, but now residing in the city, county, and State of New York,have invented a new and useful Method of Propelling Cars or Carriages onRailways, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, makingpart of this specification, in which Figure l is a side elevation of arail road with my invention applied; Fig. 2 a longitudinal verticalsection; and Fig. 3 a horizontal sect-ion taken at the line A, a, ofFig. 2.

The same letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

It has long since been proposed to propel locomotives by the expansiveforce of atmospheric air or other permanently elastic gas compressedinto suitable receivers on the locomotives, and to be recharged at givenstations along the line of the railroad by stopping the locomotive andconnecting the receiver or receivers with air pumps at the stationsoperated by steam engines or other motors; but this plan is defective inconsequence of the great waste of time consumed at the several stations,which of necessity must be numerous.

The object of my invention is to avoid the defects presented by themethod above referred to and to this end my invention consists informing a connection between the receiver of the locomotive andthesupply pipe containing the compressed atmossuch connection for asufficient length of time but while the locomotive continues to move, tocharge the receiver with compressed air or other gas to propel it to thenext charging station, by means of which I avoid the inconvenience andloss consequent upon the transportation of fuel and water on the presentsystem of steam locomotives, while at the same, time I avoid thenecessity of stoppages for supplies along the line of the road.

In the accompanying drawings (a, a,) represents the two rails of arailroad of any suitable construction, and (b) a locomotive providedwith suitable driving wheels to be operated by any suitable engine to beimpelled by the elastic force of com- 16,220, dated December 9, 1856.

linked to it, from one charging station to another.

To the upper part of the locomotive is to be connected the lower end ofa vertical pipe (0) by means of a joint which will admit of the saidtube turning on its axis about one half of a revolution. The upper endof this pipe is closed, and near its upper end one end of a horizontalpipe (d) is connected by a joint which will admit of the outer endhaving a slight play up and down; and the inner end (cl) of thehorizontal pipe is bent down within the pipe (0) and is then connectedwith the receiver (6) within the locomotive by a flexible pipe (0) orany equivalent means to admit of the free turning of the horizontalpipe. The pipe (cl) is maintained in a horizontal position, or nearlyso, by resting on a spring (6) which will however yield to any forcewhich might do a serious injury to the apparatus. And there is a coiledspring or other equivalent therefor, which connects the vertical pipe(0) with the locomotive so that when the end of the horizontal pipe (d)is turned around with the vertical pipe the spring will yield and thendraw back the pipes to their original position with the open end of thehorizontal pipe in front. The front end of the said horizontal pipe isprovided with a valve which closes outward against a seatat the forwardend of the pipe, the said valve having a projecting stem (it) so thatwhen the stem strikes any thing by the forward motion of the locomotivethe valve will be opened. The outer diameter of this pipe at the forwardend is provided with india rubber or other suitable packing (h) for apurpose to be presently described. At given and determined distancesalong the line of the road there arewhat I term charging stations tocharge the receiver of the locomotive or power car with compressed airor other gas in sufficient quantity to propel it alone or with a train,from one charging station to another. The description of one of thesestations will suffice as they may be all alike.

Immediately over the rail road track I erect a suitable frame work tocarry ways (2', which for a short distance are straight and verticallyover the central part of the rail road track, and then the said Wayscurve off to one side as represented in the drawings. To these ways arefitted fianched wheels or rollers (j, j, j, of a small charging carriageso that the said carriage shall run on the said ways freely. In thesides of this carriage are mounted the journals or trunnions of a shaft(Z) with a large hole in the middle and at right angles with its axis,to which hole is fitted in the manner of a journal a tube the lower endof which is attached to a cylinder (n) so that when the cylinder lies ina horizontal position the tube (172.) will be vertical or nearly so, butas the tube (7%) turns in the shaft (Z) and the trunnions of the shaft-(Z) turn in the carriage at right angles to the axis of the tube, thecylinder at the lower end of the tube is capable of turning as it wereon a universal joint. The shaft Z however is provided with a spring 2'the ends of which bear against the under surface of the carriage is tomaintain the cylinder in a horizontal position unless there be somedisturbing cause to change it from that position and then the springwill yield and restore it to its required position. And there is aspring 9 coiled around and attached to the upper end of the tube m andin turn attached to the shaft Z the tension of which spring willmaintain one end of the cylinder against a stop 9 with its axis in theline of the central longitudinal vertical plane of the carriage so thatwhen the carriage 7c is on the straight part of its ways the axis of thecylinder shall be in a vertical plane centrally between the rails of theroad. But the elasticity of this spring will permit the cylinder to beturned horizontally in one direction. The rear end of this cylinder isclosed and the forward end open and without it there is a smaller andshorter charging cylinder r leaving a considerable space 8 between thetwo.

The forward end of the small cylinder is bell mouthed as at t andconnected air tight with the open end of the large cylinder, and theinner end is formed into a valve seat u fitted with a valve 1) on a stemw which slides in suitable supports. The tube m communicates freely withthe space 8 between the two cylinders, and when the valve '0 is opened,with the inside of the small cylinder.

The upper end of the tube m is connected by means of a flexible tube mwith a stationary pipe 3 which communicates with a large supply pipe alaid along the side of the track. The supply pipe is to be supplied withcompressed air by pumps operated by suitable motors at suitabledistances apart along the line of the road so that one pump or set ofpumps at one station may supply compressed air to several chargingstations or there may be one pump or set of pumps at each chargingstation.

Now supposing the supply tube to be suitably charged with compressed airor other permanently elastic gas at a suitable pressure, and thelocomotive to be moving in the direction of the arrow, as it approachesone of the charging stations the forward end of the pipe (Z enters thebell mouth 6 which guides it into the small charging cylinder 9, theelastic packing on the pipe (Z fitting the bore of the cylinder soaccurately as to make an air tight joint. The moment the Valve stem onthe pipe (Z strikes the stem w of the valve to at the bottom of thecylinder 1* both valves are opened and the compressed air rushes fromthe supply pipe into the receiver of the locomotive and charges it withcompressed air at a sufiicient pressure to operate the engine of thelocomotive and propel it to the next charging station and so on alongthe entire length of the road. This charging of the receiver takes placewhile the locomotive is and continues in motion, and this is done in thefollowing manner. As the locomotive moves along, the pipe cZ firstenters the bell mouth of the cylinder as already described, the saidcylinder with its carriage begins to move on its ways and continues tomove as the valves are opened and the compressed air is transferred. Thecarriage of the charger cylinder at first moves in a line parallel withthe rail road and then gradually curves off, and as it curves off thecylinder turns with its carriage, the pipe (Z at the same time turns onthe locomotive to adapt itself until both reach about a right angle tothe line of the railroad, and then the pipe-(Z of the locomotive beginsto move out of the cylinder of the charger which permits the two valvesto close and shut off the communication before the pipe (Z leaves thecylinder, the said pipe 0Z continuing to turn on the locomotive, and thecylinder also turning on its carriage to adapt itself to the changingposition of the pipe (Z until it is entirely out. And when this takesplace the charge carriage is immediately carried back to its originalposition to be in readiness for another locomotive, which back motion isinduced by an arm a which acts on a roller 6 on the end of the carriageis. This arm projects from a vertical shaft having a coiled spring 0which is contracted by the force of the locomotive as it forces thecarriage 7s forward during the charging operation. The spring is in thisway sufiiciently contracted to carry back the carriage to its originalposition; but I prefer to aid it by an elastic bumper (Z Which also aidsin arresting the momentum of the charger carriage. There should beanother elastic bumper e at the other end of the Ways to arrest themomentum of the carriage 70 When forced back to its original position.Instead of the spring arm for forcing back the carriage 70 a counterWeight or other equivalent means may be substituted.

It Will be obvious from the foregoing that for a double track road thereshould be two sets of charging stations one set for each track. But ifdesired locomotives may be run in opposite directions on one track byhaving tWo sets of chargers arranged in opposite directions, and onopposite sides of the track, by either turning the locomotive at theterminus of the road or by making the pipe d or its equivalent so thatit can be shifted from side to side. I do not Wish to be understood aslimiting my claim of invention to the special construction andarrangement of the parts as these may be greatly varied Within the rangeof my invention by the substitution of analogous or equivalent means.

I do not Wish to be understood as making claim to the propelling oflocomotives on rail roads by the elastic force of compressed air orother permanently elastic gas, nor to the charging of compressed air orgas into the receiver of a locomotive at given stations along the lineof the rail road When this is done by stopping the locomotive to connectits receiver With the supplying ap paratus as these have long beensuggested therefor.

SAMUEL CARSON. Witnesses WM. H. BISHOP, JOEL B. VViLsoN.

